Rothschild, the Largest Bank in the World: How Multinational Family Ownership Overcame Nearly All Management Complexities When Others Failed

Abstract

The Rothschilds were the largest bank in the world in the nineteenth century. Their management structure was based on family and what a family! Internal communication, mutual criticism and intermarriages contributed to achieving banking dominance and fabulous wealth. Industrialisation, wars and revolutions almost brought down single Rothschild banks, but diversification and mutual support overcame all challenges. The Rothschilds were instrumental in saving other banks and banking systems, such as Barings and London in 1890. The absence of a family member willing to establish in the United States eventually caused the gradual decline, rather than failure, of the Rothschilds.